MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Those of you who are Journeyman machinists are probably getting a good chuckle by now. I picked up a little machining as a hobby and was never professionally instructed, so I'm probably doing a lot of things wrong. But it's been kind of fun, and once in a while I can make something that would be ne...

I haven't tried it myself, but several at photomacrography.net forum seems happy with it. Some have used it as a foundation for further DIY adaptations. William's (Wemacro) stacking equipment is very well regarded in the photomacrography community.

This may be of interest: https://www.pc-control.co.uk/control/articles/article13.php MichaelG. If it were easy to define the specs of appropriate stepper motor to rotate the knob, ANDIF Canon Camera were providing a software tool for remote firing of the shutter, like a tool that communicates with ...

The filter and case most likely don't belong together Here's seemingly identical filter described as a Wild Heerbrugg M20 neutral density filter. https://www.ebay.com/itm/WILD-HEERBRUGG-SWISS-M20-1-0-ND-NEUTRAL-FILTER-MICROSCOPE-PART-OPTICS-33-B-04/153302771381 But I agree it looks very very dark!

As long as you stay with optics branded Zeiss or Zeiss West, and not the considerably older Zeiss Jena, you probably don't need to worry about any mismatch. But others here are more knowledgeable about the Zeiss system than me. I don't have a 4x, but I do have a nice Zeiss Plan 2.5x and a Zeiss Plan...

Congrats on a very good scope! That Nikon objective is a very fine bonus for sure. My guess is that your objective belongs to the Nikon CF series. However, I haven't seen that exact one before. The Nikon 160mm CF series went through a couple of design changes. The last one can be seen in this catalo...

Congratulations! I think you made a good decision. Good optics, good ergonomics, and very upgradeable, with parts relatively easy to find in Europe. I'm sure you'll get many years of service out of that microscope. It's also encouraging to know you bought it from someone with some knowledge about mi...

Note also that the eyepieces on the Zeiss are generic Chinese. The Zeiss objectives requires eyepiece correction, so you would need to add the cost of buying the correct Zeiss eyepieces.

If you haven't done so already, you really should read this catalogue and study the differences betwenn the Achromat, E Achromat, E Plan Achromat and CFN plan Achromat series. http://www.krebsmicro.com/Nikon_CF.pdf The CFN is the best Nikon objectives you could reasonable expect to get in this price...

Not sure why you would even consider that one. It's nice, but the German one seems better in almost all respects. The German one has all objectives of the better and less common CFN series, the one you linked to have E plan series, which is the economy series. E plan are good, don't get me wrong, bu...

Check out : http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/techniques/hoffman/hoffmanintro.html You can safely ignore the central modulator. You're not likely to find one. Scroll down and take the Interactive Tutorial. You'll need Java installed. The tutorial is not necessary but I've found it helpful. Edmund ...

I have a similar condenser and objective. I will do a test and see what it is like. Looking forward to it! I would had done it myself if I was at home. The only comparison I found in a quick searcg was this 0.95 dry vs 1.40 oiled, although it's DIC so perhaps not a fair comparison: http://www.photo...

You would of course need to an oiled high NA condenser for maximum performance , but you would still get a useful image even with an dry 0.9 condenser. I have a similar condenser and objective. I will do a test and see what it is like. Looking forward to it! I would had done it myself if I was at h...

Hi Hobbyst, By the way, how could I improve my search ? When I'm searching on Ebay, I tend to use the "Best Match" option, but I assume the "Newly listed" option is more convenient. Save a lot of different searches and check the results every day. Good bargains tend to 1) be buy-it-now items that v...

You would of course need to an oiled high NA condenser for maximum performance, but you would still get a useful image even with an dry 0.9 condenser.

Though 100x oil would still be useful with a NA0.9 condenser, right? You just won't get the full resolution. It's not like it doesn't produce an image.

It's pretty hard to find compables to assess what is a fair price since the US and European markets are so different. Here's an interesting comparison, at it has a bit in common with the one you are looking at: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-Optiphot-Microscope-5-Nikon-Lenses-Fluor-10-and-40-Ph4-100...

This is still a little puzzling. With afocal 50mm, I should get: 50*10*1.25/250 = 2.5x on sensor With photo eyepiece 2.5x, I should get 1.25*2.5 = 3.125x on sensor. Yet clearly I get less magnification with the projection eyepiece. Some possible sources of error: 1) the CFW eyepiece is raised up ~7m...

zzffnn wrote:Viktor,

When you said APSC Canon sensor "needs approximately a 1.6x relay magnification", did you mean this:

26.70 mm diagonal length of sensor / 18mm (assumed) view field of microscope objective = 1.48 (relay magnification)

Cheers,
Fan

That's what I was thinking, yes.

The FOV of 15.5 is just for the old and mismatched Zeiss Jena eyepieces. The correct ones are Nikon CFW 10x/20mm FOV.

The Nikon Hobbyst46 linked to looks very, very good. The CFN series objectives are splendid, works great with both phase contrast and brightfield. You would need to get a pair of Nikon CFW eyepieces, but those are not too expensive. Pretty odd to see such a relatively high-end setup with mismatched ...

Viktor, the constructuion you described is impressive. Where does the "frankenscope" name derive from? About the photo setup: In a macrophotography post a couple of years agor, the following formula was shown for afocal setups: (camera lens FL) * (photo eyepiece magnification)/250 = crop factor for...

Fan, thanks. I still don't quite understand why an extender would be needed in an afocal setup with a 50mm lens? This lens by itself is already too much for an APS-C sensor. I've tried afocal before, but your comments inspired me to run some more tests. Direct projection First I tried direct project...

Hi Radazz.

Can I ask you for a favour? Could you take a photo of the back focal plane of the HMC objective through your phase telescope/bertrand lens when you have set your scope up for HMC? I'd love to compare the look to my own DIY version.

best,
Viktor

Thank you for your comments, Michael and Fan. Fan, 1) To be honest, I am also not totally impressed with the image quality at the "intermediate settings" with the Heine. I have gotten my trinocular setup working only very recently, so I cannot really tell you how I like it for photography yet. Howev...

Today I recieved the three objectives that I found on eBay UK for the grand sum of £75: https://i.imgur.com/EbX0Tl2.jpg I was especially excited about the 40x HMC LWD 0.55 Hoffman Modulation Contrast objective. Tonight I built a DIY HMC condenser by cutting a slit in a library card and sliding it un...

https://i.imgur.com/qMfnd9w.jpg Forgot to mention the photo tube. It's very cheap but effective. From bottom to top: 1) Wild HU photo tube (€135) 2) Asahi Pentax Microscope adapter (€20) 3) Nikon CF PL2.5x Photo eyepiece (€36). 4) M42 male-M39 female reduction ring (€2) 5) M42-M42 31mm focusing hel...

Hi everyome. I've been meaning to describe my Wild-Nikon-Leitz frankenscope in greater detail for a while. Here it is: https://i.imgur.com/YgUfzgy.jpg The base is a Wild M20. I got this stand and a mismatched set of objectives for free when I did my PhD at Umeå University in northern Sweden. It had ...

I thought I would see what I could do with my home-made HMC set-up. By home made I mean that both the insert in the condenser and that in the objective have been fabricated by me, quite simply with fairly basic materials. I realise that it is not ideal, and needs some tinkering with, but then that ...

Did I say NO Way? I couldn't find exactly the same diatom, but had to test this. Just a single shot concentrating on the texture. BX40 40x phase contrast Definitely the camera. There will be better. Radazz Thanks! Love these comparisons. Great job finding out a way to set up the 7D on the BX40. Loo...